Upcoming Indie Theater – August 13
Each week, we share upcoming indie theater shows and productions in New York City. These are submitted by members of the IndieSpace community.
Do you have an upcoming show to share? Use the Show/Production Sharing Form to share the details of your show/production with IndieSpace so that we can share with the community.
For more coverage of indie theater in New York, please visit New York Theatre Review.
The preview image is from the Chain Theatre, which is available for rentals.
MOONBODIES
Venue: The Tank AND The Makers Space (Williamsburg)
Dates: August 13 and 20-22
Space Cowgirl Productions is proud to announce the workshop premiere of MOONBODIES, an Oliver Kelly Award–winning new play written by Halley Platz and directed by Lauren Winnenberg. Following a staged reading at The Flea Theater as part of the Rogue Theatre Festival (July 12, 2026), MOONBODIES receives its fully staged world premiere at The Tank (August 13, 9:30 PM) and continues for a four-performance run at The Makers' Space in Brooklyn (August 20–23, 2026). MOONBODIES is an erotic horror love story set in a near-future New York City that feels uncomfortably close. When Shelley enrolls in an experimental drug trial that transforms her into a werewolf, the only catch is that she has to eat. A volatile, surreal, and deeply funny play about two people changing shape in a world obsessed with making everyone smaller — body horror, puppetry, and two people falling apart and back together in a city that is literally made of bodies. The show centers actors of size, foregrounds queer and neurodivergent voices, and lets the weird, the grotesque, and the tender all live in the same room.
Real Estate
Venue: The Brick
Dates: Now through August 14
After a two week sold out run in January for the Exponential Festival, Real Estate returns to the Brick Theater! The play follows two men through a highly physical and lowly written journey of love. David and Robert are constantly moving; moving houses, moving bodies and moving against their desires. Their push and pull dynamic spins out through dance, turning their awkward dialogue into a romantic ballet, a club dance and a cartoon chase. As the duo continues to find themselves in the wrong place, they draw closer to a fantasy beyond language, gesture and time.
Woyzeck
Venue: Modern Sweater
Dates: Now through August 19
Adult Film will present Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, translated by the late and storied American actor, John Christopher Jones, directed by international director Seth Bockley (2666, Gilgamesh) Summer of Blood!! Woyzeck will be the inaugural production at Modern Sweater, a former sweater factory in the heart of the independent arts capital of New York, Ridgewood. Joining the Adult Film company members is Randall Jaynes, who served as a Blue Man and the Senior Artistic Director with Blue Man Group for over two decades. Woyzeck will present a site-specific exploration of class conflict and madness. A rock musical devising lyrics from 1830s Germany. A horror story through a humanist lens.
Lilith
Venue: The Tank
Date: Now through August 22
Before Eve, there was Lilith—the first woman, who would not bow to Adam or to God’s order. Yet love ties her to the garden as she and Eve forge a bond of desire and defiance. Lilith, a new play by Adina Aaron and directed by Samantha Ozeas, is a new interpretation of the myth that investigates the gender dynamics, narratives about desire, and embrace of duality which continues to define our culture.
The Vessel
Venue: 59E59 Theaters
Dates: Now through August 23
The Vessel is inspired by the controversial honeycomb-like Hudson Yards attraction, which first opened to the public in 2019 and subsequently faced numerous closures due to fatal incidents at the site. The play follows three parks employees working together in that same timeline as the apathetic structure looms over their lives. It is written and directed, respectively, by Drama Desk nominated duo Brendan George and Peter Charney, and features Anastasia Locke, Will Ingram, and Sofonyas, each making their Off-Broadway debut.
ISLA
Venue: WP Theater
Dates: Now through August 29
ISLA, a new full-length work from the acclaimed theater company Hit The Lights!, is a Latin American coming-of-age story, featuring a full original songbook and a live Latin jazz-influenced score. Cinematic projections, recorded interviews and an extended cast of handmade shadow puppets illustrate the exquisite craft of HTL’s technical team. ISLA’s immersive set is a kinetic picture book in a state of continuous transformation that reveals the magic possibilities of one immigrant family's journey.
The Bathroom Attendant
Venue: 124 Bank Street Theater
Date: August 13-30
At a ramshackle apartment on the outskirts of Vegas, a pair of neighbors, a former fighter and an ex-porn star, are visited by a young man with a secret and an offer they can’t refuse. Booze, betrayal and blackmail ignite an explosive night that will change their lives forever, in this dark comic thriller.
The Heat
Venue: The Rat
Date: August 14
In the alley behind a mediocre Italian restaurant, four line cooks take breaks whenever they can. Their professional and personal lives clash, with passions put into question in the wake of an absent chef and hectic services. Over the course of three days, they each struggle to find peace amidst the chaos in and out of the kitchen.
Welcome to Mountport
Venue: 145 W 28th Street, 3rd Floor
Dates: August 14
Welcome to Mountport is a fully staged version of Dropout's Game Changer episode, "Official Cast Recording." Originally the setting of a fully improvised musical on a game show, the town of Mountport will soon be just a train ride away in NYC. Join Alexa, a baseball-playing girl, as she explores a mountain-seaside town full of music and small-town charm but sadly lacking in tuna fish. Can Alexa prove herself before the maybe-evil Tina and her sidekick, Pinocchio, tear her down?
Your Queen Presents: PETRUS
Venue: United Palace
Date: August 14
YOUR QUEEN PRESENTS: PETRUS is a darkly comic solo performance blending drag, clown, and magical theatricality to uncover the true story behind Beauty and the Beast. Queen Catherine de’ Medici attempts to summon the life of Petrus Gonsalvus, a Canary Islander with hypertrichosis who was taken to the French court in the 16th century and transformed into a spectacle. Created and performed by fellow Canary Islander Edu Díaz, the piece combines historical material and absurdity to explore power, displacement, and the manufacture of monsters. This new iteration will be presented at the United Palace in New York before traveling to Cannonball at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
The Infinite Wrench
Venue: Asylum NYC (123.E 24th St)
Dates: August 14, 15, 21, 22, 29, and 30
The Infinite Wrench is a barrage of 30 short plays the cast attempts to perform within a single hour in a race against the clock. Each play offers something different, be it funny, profound, elegant, disgusting, topical, irrelevant, terrifying, or even a dance or a song. All are truthful and tackle the here-and-now, inspired by the lived experiences of the performers. With new plays every week, The Infinite Wrench is the Neo-Futurists’ ongoing and ever-changing attempt to shift the conventions of live performance and speak to audiences, including those unreached or unmoved by traditional theater.
Chunxiang: A Queer Musical
Venue: Glow Cultural Center
Date: August 15
YOUR QUEEN PRESENTS: PETRUS is a darkly comic solo performance blending drag, clown, and magical theatricality to uncover the true story behind Beauty and the Beast. Queen Catherine de’ Medici attempts to summon the life of Petrus Gonsalvus, a Canary Islander with hypertrichosis who was taken to the French court in the 16th century and transformed into a spectacle. Created and performed by fellow Canary Islander Edu Díaz, the piece combines historical material and absurdity to explore power, displacement, and the manufacture of monsters. This new iteration will be presented at the United Palace in New York before traveling to Cannonball at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
Joanna
Venue: The Tank
Date: August 15
Blending dark comedy, surreal horror, and psychosexual melodrama, Joanna begins years after the title character's inexplicable disappearance, when her maybe-psychic mother, Janet, reappears in the life of her ex-boyfriend Marcus and his much younger new girlfriend, Kate. As Kate grows close to Janet and obsessed with Joanna, the past warps the present. Joanna explores grief, control, intimacy, and the ways women shape and disappear into each other.
POPS
Venue: The Tank
Date: August 15
Twins Michael and Michaela and their mother Dot have all reunited in their small Southwest town following the untimely passing of their estranged father. Each lost in their own way, they each secretly turn to the arms of the same mysterious escort, "The Man" in order to help them discover, through their own strange means, what it means to be free.
The Hex Pistols! (Part of Little Shakespeare 2026)
Venue: Under St. Marks
Date: August 16
“The Hex Pistols!” is a rock opera starring the witches of Macbeth as the titular punk band. This alternative perspective of the Shakespearean tragedy follows the witches as they taunt the other characters and mock their misfortunes through song and spooky hijinks.
The Wayfaring Strangers
Venue: The PIT
Date: August 16 and September 20
Join The Wayfaring Strangers at The PIT on Sunday, August 16 at 7pm for an improvised bluegrass musical, featuring brand spankin’ new lyrics to old-timey standards, played on traditional instruments like banjo, guitar, stand up bass, washboard, triangle and jug.
BLACKOUT
Venue: The Tank NYC
Date: August 17
We fight to become someone new, but what if we're destined to repeat the very lives we're trying to escape? Set during a hurricane in Florida, BLACKOUT is a gripping family drama that blends Reiki, queerness, generational trauma, and Latine identity into an intimate yet universal story about love, pain, and the cycles we struggle to break.
34th Birthday Party + On Her Shoulders Reading
Venue: New Perspectives Theatre Company
Date: August 18
Come celebrate New Perspectives Theatre Company 34th Anniversary with cake, food, beverages, and a performance! Featuring a reading of TWO short plays by Shirley Graham Du Bois and a party to follow! Tickets are $20 on Eventbrite or RSVP and pay at the door
Party Girl
Venue: The Tank
Dates: August 20 & 22
Party Girl is the one woman show of your dreams! This girl just wants to have fun and be sexy! And never think about the economy. Or death. After years of losing love, scraping by at minimum wage, and smoking weak-ass weed, she's determined to have the most fabulous night ever, at any cost. Even blood.
Half World
Venue: The Chain
Dates: August 20-23
Through the twisty rhizomes of online chatter and Discord servers, internet friends Bianca and Izzy lament the loss of their pop-culture tether, before the internet pushes them in different and unexpected directions.
Patrynize Previews
Venue: RedEye NYC
Date: August 22
For one night only, Patrynize Productions & Rori Nogee bring together four brand-new musicals in development, each presenting a 20-minute showcase of songs and scenes for an audience of theatre lovers, industry professionals, and fellow artists. Whether you're discovering your next favorite musical or supporting new work before it reaches the stage, this is your chance to experience these exciting new shows at the very beginning of their journey.
Swinewomb
Venue: The West End Theater
Dates: August 22 & 23
In the small, God-fearing town of Caleb’s Rest, Shiloh and Ellis grieve their parents: Shiloh through a spiraling affair with her teenage sweetheart, and Ellis through violent outbursts and secret visits to a banished herbalist rumored to practice witchcraft. Meanwhile, something old and demonic begins to fester inside Shiloh… and it wants out.
Welcome to Clowntown
Venue: Brooklyn Art Haus
Date: August 27
Picture this: you wander into an adorable birthday party-balloons, bright colors, giggling kids- when Pixie the Clown rolls in, beams sweetly, and pops a balloon with suspicious delight: “Awwww, may it rest in pieces.” And just like that, you’re launched into a rock ’n’ roll ride through Tanya Perez’s outrageous true stories of hustling as a party clown in NYC and Hollywood. Fresh off its Orlando Fringe Festival run, Welcome to Clowntown is an NSFW interactive clown show where Pixie spills the wild stuff (like getting chased by a gang) while roping consenting audience members into unhinged party games. This mad‑capped adventure blends oral storytelling, clown chaos, and the survival grind of a Latina entertainer whose alter ego says the quiet part out loud about this topsy‑turvy world.
Close Distance Disappearing Acts
Venue: The Tank
Dates: August 27-30
Close Distance Disappearing Acts is sexy, funny, and deliciously dangerous. ANDY is a quirky vigilante on a mission: clearing nerd conventions of "bad bad men." PETER is the kind of man who shouldn't exist — unapologetically Irish, built like a god, and offering his very specific services on the dark web. She hired him. Somewhere between the blood and the bodies, it became something else entirely.
Dirty Bird
Venue: ErF Gallery
Dates: September 4-20
Summer. A family gathers. And for no good reason, destroys one another. A forensic examination of the transcendence and violence of desire, the insatiable need to discover new forms of human expression and the brutal aches that shape us… a traverse to endure amongst the moments of neon lightening and jagged wounds. Dirty Bird is a radical new adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull by writer / director Whit Flint, with a score built around artists like Bowie, the Pixies, and the Zombies.
Dirty Bird
Venue: Theater For The New City
Dates: September 17-20
From the creators of Garfeld: The Musical (A Garfield Parody) comes McMusical, a brand-new, unhinged satirical romp making its first developmental production at Theater for the New City, September 17–20, 2026. Randy McDandy, the washed-up clown mascot of the fast-food empire McDandys,bites off more than he can chew when he takes over one of his restaurants in the perilous streets of Slumsville. He’s shocked to find that the restaurant has been transformed into a cold, corporate shell, stripped of all its charm. Determined to restore McDandys to its former glory, Randy must battle cynical corporate overlords. With appearances from other iconic mascots and a slew of crazy side characters, McMusical is a high-energy, R-rated parody served with unexpected heart and earnestness.
Persephone: A Garden Between Worlds
Venue: Newtown Creek Nature Walk Phase 3
Dates: October 3, 4, 10, and 11
Journey into the underworld via our immersive reimagining of the Persephone myth. Pulling on the aesthetic traditions of "Viola’s Room" and "Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy", attendees will wander through a fantastical outdoor location in Greenpoint during this intimate adventure. As Homer narrates the tale of Persephone’s kidnapping by the Queen of the Underworld, dancers and large-scale installations bring the myth to life.